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Distinguished Research Professor and Welch Chair in Chemistry Dr. Shengqian Ma is leading research that could help solve some of today’s biggest challenges in energy, environmental protection and critical materials supply. His work focuses on designing advanced materials that can capture, separate, and recycle valuable elements from complex sources such as water, industrial waste and manufacturing byproducts.

Supporting this work is the Welch Foundation, one of the nation's largest private funders of basic chemical research and a major supporter of scientific discovery in Texas. Founded in 1954, the Houston-based organization invests in high-impact chemistry research at universities across the state, helping researchers explore bold ideas that can lead to future breakthroughs in energy, medicine and technology.

“Welch support is so vital,” Dr. Ma said. “It gives me the freedom to explore new ideas, with some of that early research growing into federally funded projects on the critical materials which are so important to this country.”

One of the major goals of Dr. Ma’s work is to recover critical materials such as lithium and rare earth elements from sources where they exist only in trace amounts, including seawater, geothermal brines and produced water from oil and gas operations. These materials are essential for batteries, electronics, and clean energy technologies, but are difficult to extract efficiently using conventional methods.

“At concentrations of parts per million, it has not been practical previously to harvest these metals,” Dr. Ma said. “But our approach is aimed at changing that.”

His team is also developing “nano-traps” capable of removing pollutants such as heavy metals, oils and other contaminants from water systems, as well as recycling high-value metals like platinum and palladium from industrial waste streams. In parallel, the group is exploring how these materials can help convert captured carbon dioxide into usable fuels and support advancements in energy storage and fuel cell technologies.

“Welch lets us explore creative, innovative and unprecedented ideas and build the preliminary results that let us obtain more funding. I call this ‘frontier’ research, and it has been very productive,” Dr. Ma said.

Via UNT News